The Baby Wait

The decision was made earlier last week that Alison give birth by c-section this morning as the baby was in breech position and had not seemed to respond to various efforts to force him/her to move. Below is the scene last night when I arrived at my son and daughter-in-law's. Their wonderful cat, Sting, has been staying very close to the "presence" in his Mommy's tummy. The plan was to just relax and watch a movie and go to bed early in order to be at the hospital at 5:30 am for Alison to have a c-section birth. There was a bit of chatter and then we all were pretty quiet as we processed our individual anticipatory tension. I was in bed by 8:30 and read until about 9:30, falling into a fitful sleep and awakening at 3:30. We were all ready with time to spare and set out for Plymouth.

We got settled into a nice room in the maternity department and they began the pre-surgical prep which included an ultrasound. As an aside, last week, Alison's obstetrician had given her the incense "moax" to burn near her baby toe. This is an acupuncture application which works quite often to get the baby to move in the womb. So the ultrasound began and quickly it was evident that the baby HAD moved and was now in perfect position. Quickly the decision was made that we would pack-up and go home and await nature's time for this darling baby to arrive! In many ways we were all relieved that J & A would have the experience of natural childbirth and she would not have to have surgery, but we were also in a mire of emotions with the letdown of the day. After all, we had begun the day thinking that this would be the baby's birthday! Alison's dad and wife arrived shortly before we left the hospital and they went home with J & A and helped them get through this day and talk out the emotions, and I sped my way down the highway and made it to work by 9 am!
About midday at work I got a call from Jason and he told me he had just had to tell Alison that he got laid-off from his job last Friday. He was going to wait to tell her until after today was done. I just knew something was bothering him last night. So hard. Wow, it is impactful to have your children in crisis! His attitude is OK with it all as he is eligible for unemployment insurance and his company will keep him on one day a week until they can bring him back in March. Each day here the economic situation is more dire. Jason and Alison will be fine, there is lots of help out there and they are resourceful and have great support around them and their feeling is that they will both have time to be together with the baby and make the first few months of its life very special.

There is word from FL tonight that Theo was spotted at the top of the Christmas tree today...his parents really have their hands full!

Now, not to be outshone by all this baby and Theo folderol, Ms G wants everyone to see that she is TRYING very hard to get her Mommy away from the computer and into bed so she can be cuddled. She hates it when I am not home at night and I have been gone two nights in a row. GUILT!!!!


My sweet girl......she really shouldn't be too upset. She had LM and our friend Bob here all afternoon yesterday. I cooked a belated Thanksgiving dinner for them and it came out beautifully! A good time was had by all.